Chatham’s Sounds of Africa Music Festival Features Pitt Faculty, Alumni, and Grad Students
Chatham University will celebrate the Global Focus Year of West Africa at the Sounds of Africa Music Festival, Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3. Pauline Rovkah, professor of music and the festival director, has assembled Pittsburgh’s finest music scholars and musicians for an incredible weekend of free events in the James Laughlin Music Hall. For more information contact Pauline Rovkah at 412-365-1676 or rovkah@chatham.edu. The festival will include discussions and performances by Pitt Department of Music faculty including Akin Euba, Eric Moe, and Roger Zahab, alumni Anicet Mundundu and members of Alia Musica Pittsburgh, and current graduate students Oyebade Dosunmu, Charles Lwanga, and Ayo Oluranti. The complete schedule and list of participants is after the jump.
Friday, October 2, 4:00 p.m.
“Jazz Imaginings of Africa: Aesthetics, Memory, and the African Cultural Continuum”
This talk will include discussion and performance of select jazz composers’ works, which demonstrate the creative connections between traditional African music and modern jazz.
Dr. Kenan Foley, professor of music
Dr. Anicet Mundundu, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), is an expert in traditional and contemporary music from the central African region
Immediately following: Trio performance featuring Dr. Mundundu
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Saturday, October 3, 2:00-4:30 p.m.
“Composition in Africa: Transmission and Reception” (Panel discussion, 2:00-3:00)
Moderator: Dr. Margit Hawelleck
Dr. Akin Euba, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Kenan Foley
Mr Charles Lwanga
Dr. Eric Moe, composer and pianist, professor of music, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Anicet Mundundu
Mr. Ayo Oluranti
Chamber Music Concert
Works by African composers: Kwabena Nketia, Akin Euba, Vindu Bangambula, Joshua Uzoigwe, Ayodamope Oluranti
Performers: Kelly Lynch, Eric Moe, Roger Zahab, Robert Frankenberry, Oye
Dosunmu, Ayodamope Oluranti, Richard Page*, Pauline Rovkah, Alia Musica Sextet
*Principal Bass Clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra